Interim Action Plan August 2024

A second full-time SVPRA staff person should be hired, whose focus in the first few years should be prevention and education, including education with respect to the Policy. The SVPRA position should, like the first position, require expertise in sexual violence and trauma-informed practice, as well as skills or experience in education, communications, and training.

The IRP recommends that s.14.12 of the Policy be amended as follows:

14.12 A failure to disclose Sexual Activity with a student in accordance with s.14.6 and 14.7 of the Policy, constitutes sexual misconduct by the Teaching Staff. The failure to disclose will also be relevant to whether the student consented to any of the Sexual Activity

The Athletics Equity and Safe Sport Committee (or initiative) consider:

a. The implementation of a concrete strategy to ensure the hiring of one or more women head coaches at StFX in the next three years, as well as a concrete strategy to ensure the success of that coach in the critical first few weeks of her arrival, as well as thereafter;

b. Develop a proposal to present to the AUS leadership to revise AUS

schedules/timetables to divide ‘prime time’ game times evenly between men’s

and women’s sports in the AUS;

c. Undertake a detailed analysis of scholarships, including AAC and AFAs at StFX, to provide a rigorous review of the comparative funding of men’s and women’s teams.

The recommendations have been referred to VP’s/Co-Chairs Athletic Equity and Safe Sport Working Group. The Athletics Equity and Safe Sport Working Group has a mandate to recommend an action plan in accordance with their mandate and timeline of June, 2025 

The Women’s Basketball Program successfully secured a grant to support female coach development initiative, 2024

Waves of Change Training be mandatory annually for both varsity and club coaches, trainers and assistant trainers for the next five years, to be completed in the fall term. The training may be modified or updated for staff who have taken the training multiple times.

Waves of Change Training be mandatory for club athletes once per academic year, and for varsity athletes twice per academic year; once in August/September and a second time in the Winter term.

For the next three years, the University administration require that the Director of Athletics and head coaches meet with the SVPRA, Human Rights and Equity Advisor, Black Student Advisor, Indigenous Student Advisor, and Gender and Sexual Diversity Advisor, and their relevant Directors, three times per year (summer, fall, and winter) to integrate these other University experts and services into the leadership training and development of student athletes, and to identify issues and their solutions. The meetings should be minuted with action items and follow-up.

The VP Finance and Administration, VP Students and Directors of Athletics and Student Life will collaborate on response to recommendation and recommend an action plan as applicable.

Note: the Dept of Athletics prefers that all student athletes receive related training in these areas, and not just the Leadership Academy students

In implementing Recommendation 11, StFX should invest in staffing and programming, including programming targeted at creating new forms of community-building between upper-years at StFX and the first years in residence.

Further to Recommendations 16 and 18 below, an expanded SVPRA office should assist with residence by engaging in targeted follow-up, prevention and education at residences where harmful traditions persist and in better training and supporting CAs

StFX should have one consolidated policy prohibiting hazing, rather than separate Senate and Athletics policies. The Hazing Policy should expressly incorporate other relevant StFX policies. Hazing that would be captured by the Sexual Violence Policy should be disclosed to the SVPRA and processed under that Policy; other hazing should be disclosed to a representative in Student Services identified by StFX and addressed under the Community Code of Conduct (in consultation with Athletics where a student athlete is Involved)

Assign the new SVPRA the role of working with communities, such as CAs in a residence, a residence community, or the athletics community, to de-escalate, and educate in response to, or in the context of, incidents of sexual violence

Require RLCs to include the SVPRA in residence staff meetings, at least once per semester to educate, debrief and provide support.

Assign one or more members of the counselling team to meet at regular intervals with student residence staff of each residence as a group to debrief and provide support.

Establish a Sexual Violence Internal Review Team to meet at regular intervals to share anonymized information and to discuss, with a focus on procedure and practice, what issues/incidents have arisen or been disclosed, the nature of the incidents, the presence of any existing or emerging risk factors or trends on campus, and whether communications or procedures need to be refined, considered or addressed

StFX prioritize publishing annual data on sexual violence disclosures and reports, detailed to the extent possible while complying with privacy legislation.

The definition of incapacitated under the Policy should be amended as follows:

Incapacitated: Includes a person who does not have the capacity to give consent because they are, for example, unconscious or asleep or their judgment is impaired, such as by alcohol and/or drugs, to the extent that they cannot appreciate the risks or consequences of the sexual act. In addition to obtaining affirmative consent, it is the responsibility of the person initiating or continuing sexual contact with a person who has consumed alcohol/drugs or who may be intoxicated or impaired to ascertain and confirm that the latter individual is capable of: voluntarily agreeing to the act, understanding its sexual nature and with whom they are engaging in it, understanding that they can withdraw consent at any time, and appreciating the risks and consequences of the sexual act.

In order to reach and train faculty on key aspects of the Policy, the IRP recommends that agenda time be devoted at other scheduled faculty or University meetings for the SVPRA to deliver targeted training

StFX reduce the number of broad communications issued to the community related to reported incidents of sexual violence, and develop a principled framework for such communications that furthers the objectives of the Policy

The REES platform be evaluated on an annual basis, to consider its benefits and disadvantages, as well as whether to invest resources in promoting it at StFX

VP Students

Student Union President

An equity initiative be immediately implemented in which the university imposes a requirement that a percentage of donations to men’s “top three” teams must be used to promote equity initiatives in athletics.

For the next four years (one generation), the football team be required to participate in the Waves of Change training in their residences, in order to redress the actual or perceived entitlement of these students within the residence community.

StFX should continue to increase its staff complement of professional staff in residences, particularly RLCs.

For the next two years, StFX should establish a summer student position of no fewer than 20 hours per week to support the work of the SVPRA, including to develop and deliver the Waves of Change training commencing in August and September of the following term.

An additional counsellor be hired at StFX who specializes in sexual trauma, with priority to be given to someone who identifies as racialized or Indigenous. The counsellor should be a full-time position, and available to students and staff in the summer months, in addition to the academic year.